The present invention concerns a feedbox to supply feed to poultry breeding in general.
In general, feedboxes are connected to a main feeding tube within which the feed is continuously supplied by an auger screw. At each point where a feedbox is to be set, the main tubular duct comprises a discharge port which opens downwards. The lower part of each feedbox comprises a feed storage tub, which must be accessible to the animals regardless of their size through the whole of their growth stage.
For this reason, feedboxes are therefore equipped with means to adjust the amount of feed that is kept in the storage tub. This is necessary to adapt the amount of feed made available according to the growth stage of the animals present in a particular installation. However, in contrast to this main requirement is the need to avoid feed waste as much as possible, a factor that can considerably influence the costs connected with large scale breeding. The feedboxes of the known type do not generally envisage adjustment systems of the feed level able to effectively prevent feed waste. In fact, such feedboxes have fixed mesh feed protection grates that often do not prevent the chicks, especially when very young, from completely entering the feedbox and unnecessarily dispersing the feed and soiling it with excrement and dirt. Therefore, use of these feedboxes, during the growth of poultry, requires variation in the configuration of the protection grate depending on the size reached by the poultry. When the poultry is at the chick stage, a protection cage with particularly reduced openings will be needed, whereas larger openings will be used for adult poultry.
However, it would be expedient that such feedboxes, for economic reasons, entirely accompany the life cycle of poultry from the chick stage to that of adults. For this purpose, it therefore becomes necessary to use a feedbox with a protection grate in which accessibility to the feed can be regulated depending on the size of the poultry.
In addition, the known type of feedboxes have feed adjustment systems which are complex and difficult to use, above all because the locking into position of the shutter that regulates feed flow requires manual handling of the shutter, which is typically found inside the feedbox.
Moreover, it is expedient to underline that as soon as the chicks are put into breeding sheds they tend to occupy only certain areas of the available space and take feed from a only few feedboxes. Only with time and an increase in poultry size, by now almost adults, will they move around all the shed space making use of all the feedboxes present therein. In order to provide for effective plant management that avoids feed waste it is necessary to be able to supply the individual feedboxes separately according to the behavioural factors and/or factors connected to the growth of the poultry.
The task of the present invention is to propose a feedbox to supply feed to breeding poultry which can be used effectively throughout the life cycle of the poultry and that solves the drawbacks of the known technique.
Within the scope of this task, an object of the present invention is to produce a feedbox for poultry that is easy to manufacture and effectively prevents the entry of chicks inside the feed container.
An object of the present invention is to propose a feedbox of the type specified above that allows a simple and precise adjustment of the feed level in the storage tub of the same feedbox.
Another object of the present invention is to propose a feedbox that eliminates feed waste.
Another object of the present invention is to propose a feedbox that allows individual adjustment of the feeding tubes in a simple and precise way.
Furthermore, a feedbox that can be produced with particularly contained costs, which can be particularly simple to use and easy to remove if and when necessary.
These objects are achieved by the present invention, that concerns a feedbox to feed breeding poultry, of the type connected to a main feed auger screw and comprising: at least one gravity feeding tube joined to the main feed auger screw by means of a pipe fitting device, the feeding tube having one or more ports for the passage of feed; at least one storage tub for the feed coming from the feeding tube; means to adjust the feed level; at least one main protection grate mounted on the storage tub and provided with dividing plates and openings to allow the poultry access to the feed. The feedbox also includes at least one sliding auxiliary grate or rotationally joined to the main protection grate, the auxiliary grate comprising a plurality of peripheral tips and arranged so that the tips do not interfere with the openings of the main protection grate in at least one initial relative position of the auxiliary grate with respect to the main grate and, vice versa, obstruct at least partially one or more of the openings in at least one second relative position of the auxiliary grate with respect to the main grate.
This allows the accomplishment of a feedbox for breeding poultry able to be effectively used throughout the life cycle of the poultry since it prevents, in an optimum way, the possible entry of both chicks and adults inside the same feedbox.
According to a particular aspect of the present invention, the auxiliary grate is rotationally mounted above the storage tub, and in particular on the main grate, and the tips partially extend towards the storage tub.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the number of tips of the auxiliary grate is the same as the dividing plates of the main protection grate and the dividing plates are angularly equidistant from each other, as well as the tips of the auxiliary grate are angularly equidistant.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the means for adjusting the feed level comprise at least one adjustment assembly to continuously vary the distance between the free edge of the main protection grate and the upper edge of the tub.
This allows the free edge of the main grate to be always kept at the most suitable height to avoid the feed overflowing from the feedbox, and prevent the poultry dispersing the feed unnecessarily.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the adjustment assembly comprises one or more slots and one or more corresponding pins engaged in the slots to vary the distance between the free edge of the main protection grate and the upper edge of the storage tub.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the slots have a profile comprising a plurality of appropriately distanced seats able to engage the pins to prevent the undesired rotation of the main protection grate with respect to the tub.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the means to adjust the feed level comprise at least one shutter sliding on the gravity feeding tube to intercept the feed passage ports and friction means to hold the shutter in position.
According to an advantageous aspect of the present invention, the shutter is connected to at least one wire on which the friction means act.
The provision of friction means to hold the shutter in position considerably simplifies the manual handling of the shutter itself to accurately set the desired feed level in the storage tub.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the pipe fitting device comprises a member to adjust the feed flow to the gravity feeding tube of the feedbox.
According to another preferred aspect, the member to adjust the feed flow comprises a shutter sliding in a guide along at least one portion of the side surface of the pipe fitting device and means to adjust the position of this shutter with respect to the gravity feeding tube.
A sliding shutter in a guide along the side surface of the pipe fitting device, produced in this way, allows the individual adjustment of the feeding tubes in a simple and precise way.